The second week of our escape we decided to try some place we hadn’t been in a long time: New Mexico. We landed on Santa Fe as our home base because we had been there before, giving it a slight advantage over other places we considered. We rented an apartment in a quiet neighborhood away from the tourist attractions but close enough to get there quickly.
One thing I hadn’t remembered about Santa Fe was the lack of parking. There is no place to park in downtown that’s free. And, parking is limited so if you’re headed down there on Friday or Saturday, go early.
We thought it would be warmer there than Colorado. No. It was mid-80’s and just beautiful.
It’s not as walkable as Colorado, but there were trails. You just had to drive to them, at least from where we were staying. But the food! New Mexican is a far cry from Tex-Mex. Way better in my opinion.
Speaking of the food…we got into Santa Fe about dinner time on a Saturday. We thought we’d go to this restaurant that we passed called Tomasita’s. The parking lot was so crazy busy that we aborted. We considered settling for Chik-Fil-A, which seemed like blasphemy. Luckily, John saw the sign for this place and pulled into the parking lot. It wasn’t a madhouse so we weren’t expecting much but at least it wasn’t fast food. Welcome to Los Portrillos. Holy moly! These are Christmas enchiladas with shredded beef. Delicious!
John had enchiladas suiza. This was amazing. When he ordered it, I made a face. I’d only had the Lean Cuisine version of this dish and it was terrible! I think you could throw a stone in New Mexico and hit a great number of good restaurants in this town.
The rail yard is a pretty happening place. It’s been revitalized with hip apartments, shops, bars and restaurants. It used to be the train depot…and kinda still is.
The train still runs but it’s the commuter train now. Back in the day it was the Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe Railway. This was the only rail line that went all the way to Chicago on its own tracks.
It started out as freight. Then in the first half of the 20th century, it became a passenger rail, introducing a dining car. This also spurred the creation of the Harvey House restaurants that were strategically placed along the railway stops. More on that later. Meanwhile, today, this caboose is at the end of the park. It’s on a walking trail that we walked almost every day.
Our first trail walk was in the desert. While it was kind of cool, it was also a little eerie. No shade, no sounds. We could have been killed out here and no one to hear us scream so, after the first walk, we moved our walks to the rail yard park.
Did you know that Santa Fe was the capital of New Mexico? I did not. Among the things we “collect” (ballparks, presidential libraries..), we also collect capitals. Santa Fe is the oldest capital city. The Capitol building is called the Roundhouse. It’s the only round Capitol in the country.
We went in for a visit. It’s free. It’s like an art museum in there. The first floor has the gallery for both the senate and the house. There’s not a dome but the skylight reminds me of the dome in Austin.
A view across the rotunda. You can see some of the artwork across the way.
An example of some of the art. It’s not all religious art. A lot of it is regional but it’s all great.
After being thwarted on our first attempt to go to Tomasita’s, we tried again…at 4 pm on a Tuesday. It was not dead but we got in.
Worth the wait. I got carne adovado which was slow roasted pork in red chile. Whoa kids!
John got the Monday blue plate, which was a pork tamale and a cheese enchilada in a blue corn tortilla. They also brought us sopapillas. I wish I had two stomachs (although, if I kept eating like this, I would but it was soooo good)!
After that meal (which I didn’t finish, just for the record. I took it home for lunch the next day), a walk was in order. We were rewarded with this beautiful rainbow.
Albuquerque:
On our first day off, we decided to drive to Albuquerque. If you are a Looney Toons fan, you’ll remember that Bugs Bunny was always lamenting the fact that he should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. I wanted to see what it was all about.
The city is known for its balloon festivals. It also sits on the old Route 66. I’d like to drive that someday.
Anyway, it was about an hour or so to drive from Santa Fe. The whole way looked like this. Nothing but desert and mountains. Actually, that’s what most of the drive through New Mexico looked like.
We started with the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens. It was very peaceful and relaxing. We saw kids there on a field trip and lots of families just enjoying the beautiful day.
One of the exhibits was the Children’s Fantasy Garden, which had all these mazes and tunnels.
When you came out of that maze, you saw this dragon. I thought it was cool.
They had a whole town with a replica of the Santa Fe railway. There was even a train derailment, which I thought was funny but only because no one was hurt.
Lots of families were picnicking or reading around the pond. There was a concession stand that sold, among other things, beer. Weird.
This was the Japanese Garden and Koi pond.
After the Botanical Garden, we went to Old Town or Plaza Vieja. This is San Felipe di Neri. The church was built in 1798 and is still an active parish. There’s a museum on site but you have to call as it’s run by volunteers.
Plaza Vieja. The city of Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a community of farms and ranches.
Lunch was another amazing place called Little Anita’s. This is carne adovado enchiladas. John got the cheese version of the same thing. Yummy!
And in case you needed the restroom afterwards…Not sure if you can read the sign but it says "Old Town Loo". I’ll wait.
The next stop was the Albuquerque Museum. They had this cool exhibit by photographer Danny Lyon. This was one of his photos that I like a lot.
This was another gallery on New Mexico history. During the railroad boom days, Shorty Parker’s saloon was basically this barrel under which, he kept bottles of whiskey. It’s was an excellent museum and admission was only $6!
We enjoyed our time in Albuquerque. Real estate there was a lot more affordable than in Santa Fe. I would consider going back there and spending more time. I'd like to go during the balloon festival, maybe.
Santa Fe:
Our last day in New Mexico was spent in Santa Fe Plaza. It was difficult to find a place to park on a Friday around 11-ish. We finally found a spot about two or three blocks from the Plaza.
This is the Rosario Chapel built in 1807. It sits inside the Rosario cemetery. Unfortunately, I couldn't go in.
This is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Santa Fe has some beautiful churches.
It was not my day for churches, though. This was the second one that I went to visit. This one we couldn't go in because of a wedding. I was at least able to take a photo. And, I was able to light a candle for my mom.
This is the Loretto Chapel. Originally known as the Chapel of Our Lady of Light, it was built in 1873.
The story is the choir loft was built in such a way that a staircase would have taken up too much of the floor space, thus limiting the seating. The Sisters of Loretto prayed a novena to St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Carpenters. On the last day of the novena, a carpenter showed up with only a hammer and a carpenter's square. He built the staircase using wood not native to the area and then left without thanks or payment.
The staircase has two complete 360 degree turns with no center pole for support. According to the web, the entire weight of the staircase rests on the bottom step. It's called the "Miraculous Staircase". Whatever the truth, it's beautiful. It is no longer an active chapel. It's a private museum.
Next was lunch at another little hole in the wall that we found by accident. It was called Los Magueyes. John got this chile relleno and taco. He said it was the best chile relleno he's ever had. Those are not my thing but I had a bite and it was delish! And spicy!
I decided to get juevos con chorizo. It was so good. It was better than my local favorite at Rosa's Cafe and that's saying something! Mine was delicious but John's lunch was haunting him the rest of the day.
The Palace of Governors was built in 1618 and served as the residence and seat of government. Lew Wallace, who was the Governor of New Mexico in the 1870's wrote the book
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ while serving in this building.
Route 66.
The Palace of Governers is now the New Mexico History Museum. We spent a better part of the afternoon there and we could have stayed longer! Earlier I mentioned the Harvey House Restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. Fred Harvey created these restaurants to support the passengers on the trains along the Santa Fe railway.
He opened the restaurants with young women as servers. The women couldn't be married as they all lived in a dorm-like setting. They had to wear this uniform and follow a long list of rules. But, it gave young women a safe way to be independent and to travel. His was the first chain restaurant.
This is the courtyard for the Palace of Governors. It's so cool to me to be in this place that has so much history. They were changing exhibits so the rooms were empty. I wish they'd kept a few rooms as they had been while it was the Palace of Governors.
Looking out to Santa Fe Plaza from the Palace of Governors.
This was a water well that is in the courtyard. A lot of the buildings in Santa Fe are made of adobe. It makes the area look very poor but it is not. Santa Fe is a very artsy-kind of town. In the Plaza they have tons of art galleries/shops and restaurants. The houses are surprisingly expensive.
This sculpture of a rabbit is $2,500. While I like it, I don't like it that much. But these types of sculptures are everywhere.
We got up early on Saturday for the long drive home. Santa Fe is a great place for escaping the heat of a Texas summer. The weather is beautiful, the food is amazing and there's of history here to keep you busy. Being here has whet my appetite to learn more about the history of this part of country.
Goodbye, New Mexico! See ya next year.
